FORMER chief executive of Newcastle United Freddie Fletcher is to join the main board of the Esh Group to help it achieve its plans to double turnover to £200m.

Mr Fletcher, who led the football club's commercial recovery in the 1990s until his retirement in 2000, has been appointed to help the Durham construction group with its future expansion.

Esh Group, which employs more than 1,000, in the North-East and has an annual turnover of more than £100m, wants to expand beyond the region's boundaries, a move which is expected to double its turnover. The group's bosses believe Mr Fletcher - who also runs a marketing consultancy business, Mercer Street Marketing - can play a key part.

Mr Fletcher said: "People identify me with football, but forget my roots are firmly in the construction and house building sector."